(haipo) – Public uproar surrounding the "Golda Uprising" plan in Haifa: Residents and environmental activists protest – the planned neighborhood is based on land deals from the British Mandate era, does not serve the city's needs today and could cause irreversible damage to the urban nature. On Monday (9/6/2025), following heavy public pressure, the vote on the plan in the Planning and Building Subcommittee was postponed – but the fight is only heating up.
A neighborhood on land sold 80 years ago: Why is such an outdated plan being promoted?
The Golda Slope area was designated for residential use during the British Mandate period — over 80 years ago — when much of the land was sold to private owners. Now, generations after those transactions, heirs and landowners are exerting heavy pressure to promote construction that will generate handsome profits for them — at the expense of the environment, the quality of life of Haifa residents, and the overall municipal interest.
The municipality itself makes no attempt to hide its lack of enthusiasm for the construction of the neighborhood. In closed conversations with Haifa, municipal officials admit that they would have preferred to forgo its construction. Haifa learned that Mayor Yona Yahav also accepted the residents' position and asked not to put the plan to a vote this week — a decision that was seen as an important achievement for opponents of the construction.
Development costs: 300 million NIS of public funds — "for the benefit of a handful of landowners"
During the presentation of the plan to the Haifa Planning and Building Subcommittee, the Deputy Mayor and Chairwoman of the committee presented a dramatic statistic:
The estimated development costs of the Mordot Golda plan are approximately 300 million NIS. This figure reinforces the claims of environmental activists and residents: This is a huge financial investment by the public — that is, land development with Haifa taxpayer money — for a plan that will primarily serve the landowners, and not the needs of the city's residents, according to them.
Environmental activists also said that if these sums are invested in carrying out development in a problematic, steep and complex area, the entire public will bear the costs, while a handful of heirs and landowners will enjoy the profits. Instead, the activists argue, it may be cheaper and more profitable for the municipality to simply compensate the landowners and maintain the area as green and open space.
The 2000 Plan reinforced the outdated designation — but the reality has changed
The outline plan 2000, approved in 2019, strengthened the area's historical designation for residential use and ordered reparcelling, that is, the unification and redistribution of the lands between the owners and the Israel Land Authority.
But reality has changed:
Environmental activists claim that the roads in the mandatory plan currently pass through private land or in places unsuitable for today's traffic loads. In addition, the steep terrain conditions on the Golda slopes require expensive and complex engineering and economic solutions. According to them, building on such steep slopes involves extraordinary expenses, high environmental risk and serious transportation consequences for nearby neighborhoods.
Society for the Protection of Nature: "Serious damage to urban nature and the Ovadia Stream"
The Society for the Protection of Nature expressed strong opposition to the plan and distributed a comprehensive position paper on the subject. According to the organization, the establishment of the Mordot Golda neighborhood will cause "fatal harm" to urban nature and the remaining green spaces in Haifa. In particular, the society's members emphasize the risk of harm to the Ovadia Stream - a unique urban natural space where many hikers enjoy walking and recreation. Turning the area into a built-up area will block access to the stream, change the character of the area and cause significant harm to biological diversity.
Firebreak — additional environmental cost: felling of approximately 2,500 trees
Beyond the massive felling of trees that will be required for the construction itself, experts from the Society for the Protection of Nature point to another danger to urban nature: According to Israeli standards, a wide "fire barrier" must be created around every new neighborhood to prevent fires from spreading to residential buildings.
The meaning: Many hundreds more trees must be cut down in the buffer areas, beyond the direct cutting within the neighborhood boundaries. "Expanding the buffer will cause serious damage to the ecosystem and a significant reduction in the green lung in the area," the company warns.
There is no real planning need: "The plan is contrary to national policy"
One of the main arguments of the opponents is that the Golda Hills plan does not meet a real planning need in the city. Contrary to the policy of the national planning institutions, which calls for a focus on urban renewal within the built fabric, the plan seeks to break into open spaces and ruin one of Haifa's spectacular views.
"There is no shortage of land supply in the city," say the activists. "There are more than enough options for renovating existing buildings in Haifa's older neighborhoods. Why throw away hundreds of millions and destroy nature for the sake of an archaic plan?"
The opponents' achievement: The plan was not brought to a vote this week
Following heavy public pressure, which included a petition signed by dozens of residents, personal letters to the mayor, and a broad public appeal, it was decided this week (June 9.6.2025, XNUMX) not to bring the Golda Uprising plan to a vote in the Haifa Planning and Building Subcommittee. The plan was presented to the committee members, but no vote was held and no operational decisions were made. For environmental activists and residents, this is a significant achievement.
A Joint and United Struggle—A New Era in Public Resistance
According to environmental activists, the current struggle represents a new era in public opposition to construction plans that harm Haifa's open spaces.
“We don’t see these struggles as isolated local struggles anymore,” says environmental activist Tali Steinbach. “The struggles of the Golda Hills, the Remez River, and other green areas are one struggle. The vision is to preserve the urban landscape and urban nature for future generations.”
Tali Steinbach: "It is impossible for hundreds to get rich at the expense of hundreds of thousands"
Tali Steinbach articulated the feelings of many of the opponents when she said after this week's debate:
"Our pressure worked, and there was no discussion or vote on the Golda Slope plan! It was only presented to the committee. The plan includes 150 plots of land, most of which are privately owned and were sold almost 100 years ago. We must continue to fight for the quality of life for all of us. It is impossible for 300 Haifa residents to be harmed so that a few hundred landowners can get rich from construction on all the western slopes. This is disproportionate and unreasonable. We will continue to call on the municipality to promote urban renewal before destroying green spaces. Not for the destruction of Haifa!"
Widespread public protest: Dozens of residents officially contacted the local committee
A few days before the hearing, the local committee received an official appeal from dozens of residents who signed a petition against the construction plan. In their appeal, they demanded that the hearing be postponed until the claims and objections had been fully clarified. The residents noted that they had not received sufficient information about the hearing in advance, which increased the feeling of lack of transparency and distrust in the planning process.
Leave some nature in Haifa. Bastards
As is known, the city captains of their generations, also known as the city's mayors, and the employees of the Haifa municipality and the planning authorities did not act to promote and approve plans for the implementation of the construction of the landowners in the extensions in our case (Lincoln Slope, Tel Aharon Lincoln and Ramat Gural). Their actions, so to speak, in this matter stem from court rulings and judicial decisions that forced them to do so. As is customary in our reformed state, court rulings, from the perspective of the Haifa municipality and the planning authorities relevant to Haifa, are at best a recommendation, if at all anyone in the municipality and the planning committees attaches any importance to them. The result is that the Haifa Municipality and the Planning Committee do not actually comply with the court rulings. They do not advance and submit plans to the District Committee as required by law, but rather documents that do not comply with the provisions of the law, for example, the provisions of Amendment 4 to TAMA 35, which is mandatory legislation regarding a residential plan, for example, maintaining the principle of equality established in the Planning and Building Law, a principle that is trampled on by the Haifa Municipality and the planning authorities for irrelevant reasons. They call the documents a "plan" - when a plan is supposed to be prepared according to the provisions of the law, and this is not happening in our case. The result is a planning catastrophe, serious damage to the property of landowners and serious damage to the development of the city of Haifa, prevention of the paving of important roads for regulating transportation, including efficient public transportation, failure to solve the trapped and dangerous neighborhoods that could cost human lives, and prevention of shelter for decades from some landowners and residents. Their family – these are housing solutions that are not subsidized with billions of taxpayer money, such as 'housing for the tenant' projects, 'apartment at a target price' and other subsidized tracks, while trampling the public purse. Preventing construction prevents the collection of improvement levies and leads the city of Haifa to economic collapse on a fast track to appointing a committee called to manage the city. True, in Ramat Gural, improvement levies are collected in tiny amounts in relation to the collection potential if they were to create a quality neighborhood and not the impractical planning – but, the collection of improvement levies in the case of the Ramat Gural plan, which is a harmful plan, will soon explode since it is a flawed and illegal procedure – an oppression of the landowner public. On the way to municipal bankruptcy.
This refers to the Golda Rebellion and not the Lincoln Rebellion as mistakenly recorded above.
Dear Lilo, I understand your desire and aspirations not to harm the greenery and nature (the grazing areas of the famous Haifa city pigs, as well as the living areas of the snakes, porcupines, snails and other wonders of creation). It is good and right to preserve nature, and residential construction should be crowded with construction monsters, sardine-like dwellings, which humans in general and landowners in particular deserve. In order to preserve nature and expand the living space of animals (except humans) and plants, and this is important – and without continuing the mortal harm to the property, dignity and personal security of the landowners – it is possible to allow the landowners to realize their property from the property of the pious opponents who are of course willing to do anything for nature. The idea is that each landowner will receive the economic value of the land, plus the interest (fruits) that were withheld from him in light of the many delays caused by the public representatives who manage the city – so that for every dunam designated for housing, the landowner will receive the appropriate compensation – for this purpose, the opposing apartment owners will donate their existing apartments and, in addition, any other amount of money and/or property so that the landowners will no longer find themselves in a pocketbook shortage, a lack of shelter, and a lack of minimal security measures – since the property of the many opponents does not cover the damage caused to the landowners, the opponents will work to raise a lot of money from parties related to them and nature and snail lovers all over the world. In any case, after the opponents' apartments are evacuated, which of course will be done not by force but out of a desire to preserve nature, the opponents will not be able to live in tents in the green natural areas and they will be able to move to live somewhere else, perhaps in Tehran.
Dear Haifa generation, those who build towers and construction monstrosities are not the landowners in the extensions - blame the construction of towers on those who prepare and are responsible for the tower plans - the lawlessness that is taking place in the Haifa Municipality and the local committee - the extensions are intended for construction that matches the mountain's route, not for towers - it is the corruption in the Haifa Municipality and the planning authorities that dictates, illegally, the construction of towers and construction monstrosities in a lawless manner.
Dear Teva, it seems that you are being fed incorrect, misleading and inciting information – the full development costs in the Mamlihats are imposed on the landowners anyway – it does not cost the public a single shekel – the development costs argument stems from lies and fraud and is designed to deprive the landowners in the Mamlihats of the realization of construction.
Dear Teva, anyone who has land in the complexes: Mordot Golda, Tel Aharon Lincoln, and Ramat Gural (hereinafter – the extensions) – will be able to exercise all of his building rights – you only want him to build a villa – so I propose, in light of the audacity, to deprive a person of his rights because your rights will be denied to you and you will be able to live in only one room in your apartment, the rest of the apartment will be given to others – for example, to the victims of the extensions – this minimum, in your audacity, you do not even offer to the landowners in the extensions.
Anyone who has private land should build a villa on it and pay the development cost alone without the help of the municipality. It should be amended to prohibit building more than one floor there, and anyone who builds their own house will be immediately demolished with a sanction that will also destroy the first floor.
Unbelievable destruction of Haifa. It's outrageous that Yona Yahav doesn't stop it. Another city of towers?
They collect property taxes by force from all residents, and do whatever they want with the money, not to mention the millions paid to "people" who lack support and understanding, in any field,
Entire neighborhoods ask every day for the minimal things that every citizen and resident should receive: cleanliness, personal security, and handling of hazards.
Visiting the municipal offices, you see bizarre things: investments in millions in buildings every year, officials who think they came for modeling work,
Crazy waste of public money!!!
It's truly a shame and disgrace how the city is run!!!
Reminds me of the sketch of The Tracker. The couple who bought land on the sea side
The opponents' claims are quite unfounded. If there is a plan approved as early as the 80s and designated for residential use, empty land should be built on and utilized, the cost of development is on the landowners, and high-rise buildings should be erected.
Before you write a headline, you must be precise. All costs of the opening will be collected by the municipality from the owners of the plots and these costs are not at the expense of the public. We expect you not to spread false information.
This is not true. The costs are so high that there is a demand from the plot owners that the municipality will bear all the development and road-breaking costs, and the homeowners will pay a levy only according to the size of the rights in the plots, which does not come close to a third of the amount required.
Very soon, a very large number of Israeli residents will be destroyed in "cross-border symptom" wars, and the situation of population explosion will be eliminated for at least ten years, and robots will also appear that will eliminate evacuations and construction, and we will also occupy territories from neighboring countries and the state will subsidize housing there, and therefore the demand in the areas of the Green Line will drop to almost zero!!!
If the cost of the infrastructure is 300 million shekels – the municipality should impose a wadi preservation levy like the security preservation levy, an additional 2 shekels per square meter improvement levy for neighborhoods bordering the wadi where construction will enhance their properties with an open view for generations, pay the landowners the land realization values in appraisals, let's assume the payment is 500 million shekels? – that they receive and hand over the lands to the municipality for the establishment of the Nahal Ovadia Nature Reserve.
There is no doubt that preserving the green lung is a clear city-wide interest. The neighborhoods that will benefit from preserving the open landscape and canceling the plan will receive property improvements, and will pay a small but necessary amount to purchase the land from the landowners, and for some, it is possible to offer an alternative land route of equivalent value or transfer their building rights that they can sell to developers who are doing renovations in the neighboring neighborhoods. In other words, let's say I had land with rights to build 4 apartments totaling 500 square meters, transfer these rights so that I can sell to a developer in Brachseh who will receive another 500 square meters of building rights.
I assume that many of the land rights holders will not want to pay the high development costs in fees that the municipality will also collect from them to finance the infrastructure and quarrying, and instead will be happy to receive alternative land in the same location in the flat ridge neighborhoods and without the need for expensive development.
All the housing units there could be moved to one closed street as a neighborhood that would include 4-5 high-rise towers like Tzameret Park in Tel Aviv, in the new neighborhoods on the southern slopes. It is absurd to shave off an entire valley with illusory slopes and not exhaust other solutions to preserve this special urban nature.
To all the serial opponents
You are cheeky.
In the neighborhood where you live, trees were also cut down. Most neighborhoods in Haifa were built on green space, the Vardiya neighborhood, Ramat Alon, Emet Golda, and more...
In all these neighborhoods, trees were cut down to build the neighborhood.
There are enough green areas in Haifa that are not designated for construction. Haifa will continue to be a green lung with the vast areas in Carmel.
The municipality is obligated to develop and build. All the excuses of the opponents do not hold water. They also live in places that required development and also there the owners of plots of land "got rich". It is known that the residents of Haifa have a problem with the pockets of others.
I completely agree with you.
1000 percent right
We must oppose in every way the plan and any other plan that will 'strip the green and nature from the city of Haifa. It's time to renew the old, not build new and crowd more and more. Let's build new cities because the existing ones are already overcrowded.
The audacity of people who oppose construction comes from jealousy. It is mandatory to build and approve urban development and the construction of this neighborhood. And the narrow view is not a reason to cancel or postpone. It is the municipality's duty to develop the area and not to stop anything. The proprietary right of the landowners is in the law and no one has the right to prevent the public from using the land for construction. Beyond that, the 300 million in terms of mayors from the three largest cities in the country is not a lot of money and anyway the rest of the public will not benefit from the money. So then there is no reason to harm a fair process and approve the development and construction. It is clear that this will also stand up in court and the municipality will bear all the costs.
What are you saying?!?! You brat… Transactions from two hundred years ago that future generations will pay for??? They no longer destroy nature and then wonder why species are going extinct and wild boars are back, etc. And the main thing is that people earn more and more money… You will burn with your money, you have destroyed every good part
The only rage of Haifa residents today!! It should be on the laconic and flattering disgrace to award an honorary doctorate to animals… You have literally lost the north
What do you propose to give to Sarah Netanyahu in her place?